


The Story of the KGB Incident: Take 3

by Yrindor



Series: Kohinata's Secret [3]
Category: Prince of Stride: Alternative (Anime)
Genre: FTM Kohinata Hozumi, KGB Incident (Prince of Stride), M/M, Minor Violence, Outing, The Previous Hounan Third Years Are Assholes, Trans Character, Trans Kohinata Hozumi, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5935339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even the story Heath told the current team about the incident at the previous year's End of Summer event left out some of the details.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Story of the KGB Incident: Take 3

"And stop pretending you've hurt yourself!" the relationer snapped, turning on Heath. "You're such a baby. Or maybe you're a girl too. Just like your 'boyfriend.' "

Heath froze. "What did you just say?" he asked slowly.

"Our captain here forgot something in his locker after practice the other day," the relationer drawled, "and he came back with the most interesting story. Apparently our little Hozumi-kun is actually Kohinata-chan, or had she not bothered to share that little detail?"

"Hozumi is every bit as much a man as I am, which is more than I can say about either of you assholes," Heath spat. He immediately regretted his words when his relationer kicked him squarely in his already sprained ankle. He screamed and crumpled hard as stars exploded in his vision. He closed his eyes as both his captain and his relationer closed in on him.

When the expected blows never hit, he cautiously opened his eyes again and saw Kyōsuke standing between him and the third years, who were now sprawled on the ground themselves. Kyōsuke had a growing bruise on his cheek where he had clearly taken a hit himself, but he didn't seem to notice.

Heath felt sick for reasons that had nothing to do with the pain radiating from his ankle as he realized Kyōsuke would have heard his entire exchange with their relationer. Tomoe would have heard too, but he didn't worry about Tomoe; he seemed perfectly content to hang back in the shadows and avoid involving himself at all.

Kyōsuke though, Kyōsuke was a complete unknown. So far as Heath knew, his teammate hadn't known any of this until just a few minutes earlier, and he had no idea how Kyōsuke was going to react. Did he understand, or did he share their senpai's views and think Hozumi was a disgrace and Heath was just as bad for supporting him?

"Kyōsuke," Heath began, but before he could say anything more, the rest of the team ran up to join them. Kyōsuke just smiled at him, a smile that Heath couldn't interpret, and turned to face the new arrivals.

All of a sudden, Heath couldn't breathe. It would be bad enough if word of the fight got out; it might even cause the club to be disbanded, but he could deal if it came to that, maybe even figure out ways around it. If word of the reason for the fight spread though...he wouldn't accept that, even if it meant taking the fall himself.

It wasn't that he thought Hozumi needed coddling, or needed to be protected from reality, far from it, but Hozumi already faced enough obstacles. Hozumi who already practiced long after everyone else left every day just to make sure the locker room was empty by the time he went back, who already took the captain's barbed comments about his relative lack of stamina without complaint, even though he fought through every practice and every meet with his breathing hindered by the binder he didn't dare leave off. Hozumi who didn't need the ugly underbelly of the Stride Team's prejudice added to that.

But it wasn't Heath's choice anymore; the one who was going to speak was Kyōsuke, and Heath had no idea what he would say. He closed his eyes and tried to will himself to breathe as he awaited judgment.

Then Kyōsuke began to speak and took responsibility for everything, and Heath couldn't breathe for entirely different reasons. The explanation was so unexpected it left him floundering, and by the time he re-oriented himself, Kyōsuke had left and Hozumi was at his side.

As Hozumi fussed over his ankle, he had to fight the urge to pull him close and never let go. To do that would raise too many questions and force him to say things he never wanted Hozumi to know, so he forced himself to put the urge aside and be grateful Hozumi hadn't been wearing his earpiece when the confrontation had taken place.

Once he could move without his vision going grey, he let Hozumi help him to the infirmary. He wanted to speak with Kyōsuke, but there were too many people around, and given the story Kyōsuke had told, it wouldn't be safe for them to be seen talking together.

Finally, as everyone was leaving late that afternoon, he found his chance when he saw Kyōsuke turn down a side hallway. He hobbled after him as fast as he could on his crutches, and caught his teammate just as he left through a side door.

"Why did you take the fall for the team like that?" he demanded.

Kyōsuke stopped, but he didn't turn around. "It wasn't for the team," he said.

"For Hozumi?" Heath asked, surprised. He hadn't thought Kyōsuke had cared that much about the first years on their team.

"For you," Kyōsuke snapped. "I don't give a damn about Kohinata one way or the other, but you risked your Stride career to defend his honor. If he and his secret mean that much to you, then I'll protect him too, for your sake."

Kyōsuke closed the door hard behind him, leaving Heath alone in the hallway. He leaned hard against the wall, trying to process what had just happened. Hozumi found him there several minutes later and helped him back to where they had left their bags. The rest of the team had already left rather than wait for them. Heath found he didn't really care; he didn't want to deal with any of them at the moment anyway.

He and Hozumi took the train back alone, stopping at a favorite restaurant for dinner. They didn't really speak of what had happened, and Heath didn't mind.

Things slowly started to settle back to a new normal, but he missed running with Kyōsuke, and it pained him when his boyfriend said cruel things about the man who had quietly given so much to protect him. He couldn't say anything though, not unless he wanted to bring up things he refused to say, so he stayed silent and was grateful when the whole incident eventually became a taboo topic.

A year later though, the incident came bubbling back to the surface despite his best efforts to keep it buried. Resigned, he told the rest of the team the true story of what Kyōsuke had done, but he still left out the comments that had set off the entire incident in the first place. He still wasn't ready to go there.

"Kyōsuke did it to protect the club, but only Hozumi and I were left," he said as he finished his story. "Isn't that ironic, Hozumi?"

"No, it's not," Hozumi snapped with uncharacteristic anger. "That just pushed all of the club's problems onto you. Is that what you wanted? The hollow shell of the Stride Club? Even if it meant you were going to be all alone? And Kuga-senpai thinks he protected the club doing that? That makes no sense…"

Heath flinched. _No_ , he thought, _no it doesn't make sense, because that's not all of it_ , but he couldn't say that. Before he could figure out how to respond though, Yagami yelled out in frustration, and the conversation moved on.

Heath had never been so happy for an interruption in his life. Maybe someday he'd be ready to tell Hozumi the rest of the story, but not yet, and definitely not when there were other people around.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.


End file.
